to be grateful..

While sitting in the kitchen today, I was enjoying telling a loved one about my day. You can say I am always a bit down trodden after hearing how hard of a time this person is having. I always am when I hear one of my family members is struggling a bit, though with this one I never seem to know where to go or how to help. They asked me, "How can I be grateful for something I hate?" Tough question, but not one that I haven't neglected to ask the Lord myself. It got me thinking as I went off to work how much I hate my job, but what does this job allow me to do? It allows me to pay for a car, pay for my schooling, pay for the little pleasures here and there. So am I required to be grateful for the thing I hate, or the things that that thing I hate allows me to do?

I was perusing through some previous talks about gratefulness and happened upon this one. I couldn't have come up with a better story:

"As a young boy, life on our small family farm was heaven. Often in our humble home there were not as many shingles as we had roof. The rest-room facility was connected by a long path that required some advance planning, and sometimes my worn shirt had more buttonholes than buttons. The Saturday night bath in front of a warm stove, where your body experienced both extremes in temperature, was a luxury.

Then something changed. I started school and began to notice possessions I had not known. Some had nice clothing, beautiful homes with all the modern conveniences, and drove newer automobiles. Many my age were not required to arise early and do chores before going to school, only to go home at night and do them all over again. While they were popular and confident, I became backward and shy. Regretfully, I began to forget how happy I had been with my basket of blessings as I indulged in comparing their seemingly endless bushels to mine. Thus, the blinders to humility began distorting reality, giving way to ingratitude. The expectation that more is deserved can cause our plate of plenty to appear empty. Gratitude has many faces and takes on many forms."

Interestingly put. It takes many faces and many forms.. So could that mean that even if you hate something, with a passion, you can still be grateful for it and what it gives you the opportunity to do? I guess the only thing that could give me some sort of answer to that question would be that "Joy and Happiness are born of Gratitude" and to be grateful for things you may otherwise want to avoid, will bring more blessings in the long run.

{Talk by Gordon T Watts, Gen Conference Oct 1998}